Category: Interviews

 

 

Father and son spinning records together as DJ team. We are not sure but we think that’s a novum. Could you both please tell us something about you, what you do in your normal life, your youth and what kind of music you listened to at that time?

Jörg: I am a married state certified technician in engineering, aged 43 and a father of three. Besides Felix, there are Kida (14) and Laila (11). As a boy, I was very much into skateboarding and was mostly listening to rock or heavy metal like AC/DC, Metallica and Danzig, but also to EBM or industrial bands like Ministry.

Felix: I am 21 years old and graduated last year in our hometown in Heidelberg, where I live as well. Most of my time is consumed by music, but I have a side job in Mannheim and travel a lot to visit bigger cities and festivals. I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember, the first concert I went to was “Die Ärzte” around 2008 or something. After Rock and Metallica , I got into hip hop for a while as well. Then around 2011 I started to really get into dance music.

 

When did you start with djing as solo artist?

Jörg: I got my Technics 1210 MKII and my Vestax PMC-46 at the turn of the year 1993 /1994 so I could play the tracks I wanted to listen to, mix them the way I wanted to and to record sets as I would like to hear them. So it was a very egoistical reason.

Felix: After my 18th birthday in 2013.

 

(Luettringhouse)

 

When and who came up with the idea to play together?

Felix: It just kind of happened, as I came home from a party and started playing, at some point my father walks in and goes “what’s that” and “have you ever heard of Blablabla” and we started playing together for a while. This became a regular thing and this was kind of the inception.

Jörg: Yes, after being very sceptical of digital djing for a long time, I tried Felix´ controller a Pioneer DDJ-SX on said day and realized its amazing possibilities with loops and cue points. A couple of weeks later, I bought a NI Traktor S8 for myself and one day we had the idea to connect the two controllers together so we would be able to play together. This was the beginning of our two controller style, which we still practice to this day.

 

(Jörg from Luettringhouse)

 

What’s your favourite style? Who are the DJs and producers who inspire you?

Felix: Ha, the question I most looked forward to! My favorite style is hard to put into words, as it’s somewhere in between slow-rolling techno and progressive house, an atmospheric experience of sorts. My absolute hero in terms of DJing is John Digweed and if you’d like to know what I was just trying to describe, he is the de facto master of said style, in my opinion and his mixing skills are just out of this world. Favorite DJane is, without question, Monika Kruse! The queens connection with her fans and her lovable presence are particularly noteworthy. My favorites of the younger generation are Layton Giordani, as his feeling for timing and vocals seems so perfect to me! I get a lot of my inspiration from his productions. The same goes for SHDW and Obscure Shape, their grooves and timing are so awesome. I also learned so much from Jonny Miller and Paul Thomas, my two former teachers from London, where I studied at the SubBass academy. Last but not least, I have to mention Robert Babicz, as I have one of his melodies tattooed on the back of my shoulder.

Jörg: Techno. Dark, hard, dirty, industrial which may contain some epic melodies. In the nineties, above all else, it was Sven Väth to me, as I was lucky enough visiting Omen club Frankfurt between March 1993 and its closing in 1998 and experienced awesome, ecstatic nights where he was always part of the crowd, despite his steadily growing fame. Musically, I was influenced by producers like Christian Vogel, Tobias Schmidt, Neil Landstrumm, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills and I have bought nearly every release on Djax Up Beats (favorite Random XS) and not to forget the harder sound from Berlin, especially Dj Tanith, who is still one of the djs who can make me dance through his whole sets. Besides him there are Sunil Sharpe, Max Durante and Ancient Methods playing the way I would like to hear techno. Not only their extraordinary mixing skills impress me, but they all release productions which I mostly buy. Another great act is Orphx and I fell in love with Fred Umwelt, Headless Horseman and Furfriend.

 

(Felix from Luettringhouse)

 

Do you also listen to other stuff than techno and house?

Jörg: Not really at the moment. Of course I kept all the music from my youth and I bought the latest Metallica album, but I rarely listen to other music.

Felix: Yeah, I recently rediscovered my love for old-school hip hop in a way and I’m very high on soundtracks as well.

 

(Luettringhouse)

 

When you guys select the stuff for a night playing together, who choose the records, who owns them? What is the process?

Felix: We choose our own records separately and always own them ourselves. When we know our time slot, we have a chat about what the crowd most likely wants at that point and talk about what we could do. Jörg is very high on feeling what the crowd wants at that very moment, while I love to be prepared for every scenario. But being prepared doesn’t mean anything is carved in stone or is recorded beforehand and just being played, of course.

Jörg: Exactly, In the beginning we were showing the tracks we wanted to play to each other so that the other one could react. But by now, we know each other’s styles so well that we do not need to know which tracks the other one has chosen beforehand, to be able to perform up to our standards. This is of course very important to us because of our different styles. We have different types of playing together. Sometimes we change every two or three tracks, sometimes after 15 or 30 minutes. One does the start, the other one does the finish. Sometimes we play doubletrouble with up to four decks or two decks plus remix decks. It´s always interesting because there are two people and therefore two separate brains involved, which creates something one could not make up on his own.

 

(Luettringhouse)

 

Where did you already play together? Which was your favourite spot? Any nice anecdotes?

Jörg: Sucide Circus and Tresor Berlin, Nachtleben Frankfurt and Villa Nachttanz in Heidelberg, where we already have been hosting our own event series called „Generations“ five times. My favorite spot will always be Tresor. Well, when before we were going to play there in 2015, we were sitting in our apartment. We had diner and took a rest so we just had slept for an hour or two. After waking up again and realizing that we were now about to play at this huge place of techno history, we both were like „yeah well… I had a great pizza and some sleep so it would be okay to just go home now.“ (We were absolutely terrified) Luckily, we called a taxi, went to Tresor instead of the train station and played the opening set, which was one of the greatest moments in my life. Besides Omen in Frankfurt, Tresor has always been the most important club to me. I first went there after the Loveparade in 1994 and 21 years later, I was playing there with my own son. It was that magic feeling that I got a Tresor tattoo on my left arm for, exactly one month later.

Felix: And we have the Suicide Circus coming up this Friday coming up for the third time, where we’ll close the show for Tanith and Wolle XDP for the first time, as we had the honor to open twice for them in the past (thanks guys!). Then, on Monday, we’ll play an afterhour at Grießmühle. And in terms of anecdotes, nothing out of the usual craziness that is this scene, although it felt pretty great to be able to perform at places where so many of my heroes had stood before.